After the unusually stylish and exciting previous episode, "The Dirty King" is a more relaxed, standard affair. It is what you might call a bog-standard episode of "Furuhata Ninzaburô", a well-written if entirely unremarkable entry into the series.
The story is clearly inspired by the "Columbo" episode "The Most Dangerous Match" but the main difference is that the killer here is far less interesting. Yasosuke Bando does a fine job with the script he's given but the character he plays, grandmaster Yonezawa is a distant, cool villain who refuses to engage with Furuhata and play his games. This robs "The Dirty King" of the most amusing aspect of the show, the interplay between the hunter and the prey.
What it lacks in suspense, "The Dirty King" makes up for in comedy. This episode introduces the tendency toward making Furuhata a more comedic, bumbling character. He constantly knocks over plants, bumps into people, and ruffles papers while everyone around him is engaged in concentrated silence. Tamura Masakazu is great at physical comedy but I must admit I prefer Furuhata at his more menacing, tricky self. There are, by the way, several very funny scenes between him and Masahiko Nishimura who plays his comedic sidekick Shintaro Imaizumi. The episode is at its best when the two of them are together.
Otherwise, however, "The Dirty King" is a competent but rather unremarkable episode. The mystery is not that engaging and Keita Kôno's direction is typically restrained and unimaginative. Besides the great moments of comedy, there is little here that stands out, especially after the brilliant "The Killer Fax".